Nouveau vegan

Take an austere way of eating, add masterful chefs. Even the foodies will approve.

Top chefs always have their eyes open. They know a trend when they see one. They know when to hop on the bandwagon while there's still room. And the latest one trundling through town carries the awareness that chefs have to find a way to appeal to the impressively large tribe of vegans.

Vegans! These people -- a meat-eating, dairy-slurping eater might think -- are the antithesis of the food lovers who fill the tables at top dining spots. They hardly eat anything. Well, yes and no. In fact, that's the challenge.

The trick is to take the ingredients vegans do eat and bring to them the same intensity, innovation and affection for the beautiful dish that prevails in more conventional approaches, and in the process change dutiful eating into joyful dining.

Over the last few months, a handful of Los Angeles chefs have expanded their vegan repertoires in earnest. They have maintained their creativity and style, even as they've eliminated many of the basic materials that define them: butter and cream, fish and meat, even eggs and cheese.

It's all proof that serious vegan cooking isn't some passing fad, such as raw food and its gimmicky imitations. (Pizza with a "living buckwheat crust"? Get real.)

At Grace on Beverly Boulevard, chef Neal Fraser has featured a vegan appetizer, entree and dessert every night since the restaurant opened about five months ago. He has served a pumpkin soup with a soy-tofu foam and now offers a corn soup with squash blossoms. The main dish is a basmati-stuffed pepper with diced vegetables, dried fruits and pecans. For dessert: a rich chocolate ganache tart made with maple syrup and presented with sour cherry compote and roasted Spanish almonds.

While it doesn't seem like such a leap for a chef like Fraser, cooking in an ambitious modern style, it's something of a surprise to find an extensive vegan menu at a formal French restaurant.

But that's exactly what Jean Francois Meteigner is doing at La Cachette in Century City. It started last year, with an episode of "Dinner for Five," an Independent Film Channel series with actor Jon Favreau and four guests.

An episode was being shot at the restaurant. "Two days before, they tell me one guy is vegan," Meteigner said. "That is when I started seriously panicking. I didn't know what vegan food was, frankly. Then I did a lot of research on the computer. I found that we had a lot of stuff that worked."

That guest, actor Ed Begley Jr., became a regular at La Cachette, and Meteigner started cooking monthly vegan dinners. Now Begley has spread the word to fellow vegans, such as actor James Cromwell, and Meteigner has expanded his repertoire with $50 vegan tasting menus on Friday nights. On Aug. 10, he'll do seven courses, pairing each one with either fresh-squeezed juices or wine. He's even offering a $25 vegan picnic basket.

As Meteigner presented a beautifully composed terrine of beets, avocado and heirloom tomatoes, he couldn't contain a bit of pride.

"If vegan could be like this all the time, I'd eat it all the time," he said. His family is eating more vegan meals partly to avoid his toddler daughter's egg and dairy-product allergies and because his wife, Allie Ko, grew up on Korean cooking that's often all-vegetable. Ko introduced her husband to ingredients as she shopped for soy milks, rice ice creams and the like for their daughter.

It's not without some sacrifice that these chefs give up their traditional ways of cooking. Yet as demand grows for vegan food, many have adjusted.

Six weeks ago, Miro, the restaurant at Santa Barbara's Bacara spa and resort, added a four-course, prix-fixe menu for vegans and vegetarians.

"When we'd get a vegan request, it always seemed like it was during a rush," said sous-chef Joe Anguiano. "It was like we turned into Iron Chef and had to do something spur-of-the moment."

Chefs these days also have to consider nutrition as much as they do taste and presentation, said John Rucci, an executive food and beverage manager at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Chef Bill Bracken of the hotel's Belvedere restaurant has adapted many recipes to appeal to vegans.

"In this day and age," said Rucci, "if you can't vary from macrobiotic to vegan and everything in between, you are not going to survive."

In fact, vegan dining has become a sort of draw for some restaurants. In June, Hugo's in Studio City hosted a "Mindful Dining" evening of mostly vegan courses accompanied by meditations on the food. Its 40 seats sold out in a week.